The Venezuelan government should urgently clarify whether Sofia Maria Sahagún Ortíz, a Venezuelan-Spanish citizen, has been arrested, and disclose her whereabouts, the grounds for her detention, and ensure respect for her rights, Human Rights Watch said today.
Sahagún Ortíz's family last heard from her on October 23, 2024, when she was about to board a direct flight to Madrid at the airport in Caracas. Sahagún Ortíz's family says she texted her husband saying she had passed passport control. Her relatives learned the next day that she had not been allowed to board the plane but have not been told what happened to her next. Her family has repeatedly asked Venezuelan authorities to look for her and disclose whether she has been detained.
"Sahagún Ortíz appears to be the victim of an enforced disappearance, a serious crime under international law, and sadly a common one these days in Venezuela," said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. "The Venezuelan government should urgently clarify her whereabouts and Spanish authorities should press President Maduro to ensure her rights."
International law defines an enforced disappearance as the detention of anyone by state forces or their agents who refuse to acknowledge the arrest or whereabouts of the person.
Since October 23, the last day Sahagún Ortíz's family heard from her, police officers have repeatedly appeared at their home and harassed relatives and acquaintances asking questions about the family, Sahagún Ortíz's husband told Human Rights Watch. Her husband and children moved out of their house and, days later, fled Venezuela.
On October 30, the family's lawyer went to the Attorney General's Office and the Ombudsperson's Office asking officials to investigate Sahagún Ortíz's case. Prosecutors refused to open their own investigation, the family's lawyer told Human Rights Watch. According to judicial documents that Human Rights Watch has reviewed, prosecutors transferred the case to the Scientific, Penal, and Criminalistic Investigative Service Corps, a branch of the police charged with carrying out forensic investigations.
The authorities have not provided any information to Sahagún Ortíz's family on her whereabouts, nor have they indicated if and by whom her disappearance is being investigated.
The Venezuelan government is responsible for widespread and systematic human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, and torture, Human Rights Watch said.
Repression escalated after the July 28, 2024, presidential elections, where Venezuela's electoral authority announced that Nicolás Maduro had been re-elected president without presenting evidence of such a result. Foro Penal, a pro bono organization, reports over 1,900 "political prisoners", including 23 whose whereabouts remain unknown.
In addition to those forcibly disappeared, many of those arbitrarily detained are held incommunicado, denied access to private legal counsel, and charged with vaguely defined crimes carrying long prison sentences including "terrorism" and "incitement to hatred."
"It is essential for the international community to maintain a spotlight on political prisoners in Venezuela and call for them to be immediately and unconditionally released," Goebertus said. "Special attention needs to be given to those forcibly disappeared, whose whereabouts are still unknown, and whose families are suffering."
